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UBC is tracking data for penguins to teach us ways to preserve their habitat

VANCOUVER—Data sent from space and back may help University of British Columbia researchers determine why the penguins’ breeding population can fluctuate so dramatically.

By attaching small transmitters in April to the backs of 66 Gentoo penguins from two colonies in the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, researchers are now collecting information on where the birds forage for food as they fatten up for their breeding season in October.

Data sent from penguins’ feathers to space and back to UBC could help researchers determine why the penguins’ breeding population fluctuates so dramatically.

These transmitters ping location information to satellites in near real time while small time-depth recorders provide data about the animal’s dive behaviour and foraging activity while swimming out at sea.

Gentoo penguins are especially interesting because they return to their colony locations throughout the winter, said Sarah Dier-McComb, UBC master’s student in the department of zoology.

They hunt close to the Falkland Islands — where one-third of the Gentoo penguins’ world population resides — and use winter to build up energy reserves so they can give birth in the summer and moult in the fall.

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“Researchers had noted that some penguins do longer, overnight trips, though there wasn’t a lot of information about it,” said Dier-McComb, noting there’s been more variation between individual penguins than first thought.

“With the results we’ve gotten already, we can confirm that, yes, some do take long multi-day overnight trips, foraging far from shore, probably going after preferred prey.”

Prior to this analysis, there has been very little information on where penguins go in the winter and where they forage, she added. And population changes can occur by as much as 50 per cent in a given year. Some researchers attributed wild swings to climate-related factors, but this team wanted to see if the penguins’ winter foraging behaviour would provide clues.

The team plans to cross-reference information gathered with environmental data, such as water surface temperature, chlorophyll concentration and ocean currents with reproductive data to determine a relationship: The goal is to guide efforts to protect the birds’ habitat.

But Dier-McComb noted that, if successful, the method can help protect all sorts of species’ habitat.

Gentoo penguins are generally predictable in their movements, which is why UBC researchers wanted to follow them during the winter months. (UBC / Submitted)

“We’ll be very interested to see what effect those trips may have on energy reserves and if those individual variations in behaviour can increase population resilience,” explained Marie Auger-Méthé, an assistant professor in UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and Department of Statistics.

Earlier work has linked big changes in climate — such as El Nino — to the number of breeding pairs, she explained. Yet, researchers are not studying the impact of climate change. Instead, they are trying to understand the conditions that are a bar to foraging or efficient capturing of prey.

Dier-McComb and Auger-Méthé are working with Glenn Crossin of Dalhousie University. Their research is supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant, the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute.

Final results are expected by the end of the year.

Melanie Green is a Vancouver-based reporter covering food culture and policy. Follow her on Twitter: @mdgmedia

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